Visaton Grand Orgue - Price Per Pair

The toughest challenge for a high-end loudspeaker is to reproduce the lowest frequencies of larger instruments, such as an organ or double bass, with appropriate fidelity. Only very few speakers are at all able to reproduce the lowest register of a church organ and even then only the very best are able to make it sound as if it was coming from an organ pipe. To do credit to a double bass in all its glory without sounding fluffy or over-inflated or, even worse, giving up altogether, is the reserve of very few, outstanding loudspeaker constructions. The "Les Orgues" speaker series, in this case the GRAND ORGUE species, represent exactly that capability. With eight WS 25 E 8 Ohm woofers, optimised specifically as a free-air system, mounted in a folded, but open baffle, they are able to reproduce bass down to below 20 Hz in a most natural, unhurried and completely unexaggerated manner and with no sign of weakness. Since there is, in effect, no enclosure, the resonant frequency of the woofer is not increased, but in this case even decreased, which enables it to emanate clear, non-compressed extremely low frequencies. The precondition for this low-range bass imaging, which uses double-sided radiation, is, however, also to ensure the speakers are far enough away from the wall. One metre is sufficient, but for full power right to the bottom of the bass range, 2 - 3 metres is preferable.

But the effortless and unobtrusive deep bass is not all, by any means. The bass section, which radiates to both sides, is supplemented by a line array consisting of eight oval SL 713 4 Ohm full-range drivers. This moderately priced full-range loudspeaker is characterised by its extremely light paper diaphragm and the voice coil carrier made of kraft paper which, together, ensure absolutely natural sound right through to the highest frequencies.

A key characteristic of line arrays is that they generate a highly focused sound beam in the vertical plane. Outside that main path, a large proportion of the signal is cancelled out by interference. This prevents reflections from the floor and ceiling from even coming into existence, which would impair the precise tridimensional imaging of the music. However this beaming effect is a direct function of the wavelength of the sound radiated. The higher the frequency, and, as a result, the shorter the wavelength, the more extreme the beaming effect. A large array such as we have here in the GRAND ORGUE would normally lead to very extreme beaming in the high-frequency range, which would not reflect the reality of the sound being played. To achieve as uniform a beaming effect as possible across the entire frequency range, which is important to guarantee balanced sound quality in the listening room, we have arranged for a correcting circuit within the array. This circuit ensures that, as the frequency increases, additional output is directed towards the second and third full-range drivers from the top while the output to the other six drivers is gradually reduced. In effect, the array is shortened across the full range steplessly from eight loudspeakers to two. These two loudspeakers should be as close as possible to ear height. If ear height should actually be higher or lower than the midpoint between the second and third full-range drivers from the top, the system can easily be adapted to the situation by wiring up the array in such a way that e.g. the third and fourth drivers from the top are responsible for the higher frequencies. In this way, the cabinet can be tuned in small steps to suit the real situation.

Combining all these technical sophistications in a single cabinet results in an exceptional speaker system which is predestined for the "natural" reproduction of music, but not only for that. Whether it is a keenly picked guitar string, a crisp drum solo, an entire symphony orchestra including an uplifting, heart-warming string section and a powerful brass department, or the veritable queen of all instruments, the organ, it will all come across absolutely authentically, with dynamism and is guaranteed to give you goose pimples. In the same way, voices, male and female, are reproduced faithfully including every tiny detail. Each instrument and voice appear to be hovering in exactly the right place in space, the spatial quality is completely natural and everything is in the defined position.

Anyone on the lookout for loudspeakers for high-quality music, who does not intend to make compromises in terms of frequency response and who is keen on extremely accurate imaging of the stage or orchestra pit, should take a close look at the GRAND ORGUE. The only preconditions are a powerful amplifier and generous distances between the cabinets and the walls to enable the GRAND ORGUE to develop its capabilities.

HINT: The bass part of the GRAND ORGUE, on its own without the full-range drivers, connected directly up to an active source without a passive crossover, acts as an excellent subwoofer and can be used, either singly or as a pair, to support music-orientated high-end loudspeakers and full-range loudspeakers down to the lowest bass frequencies and give home theatres the bottom end that they deserve.

Required accessories:

threaded rod M 6

16 pieces à 290 mm

cover nut M 6

32 pcs.

large washer M 6

32 pcs.

screwed insert M 3

32 pcs.

hexagon socket head screws M 3 x 10 mm

32 pcs.

Technical Data:

Rated power

200 W

Maximum power

500 W

Nominal impedance Z

4 Ohm

Frequency response

16–28000 Hz

Mean sound pressure level

81 dB (2,83 V/1 m)

Cut-off frequency

300 Hz

Principle of Housing

Dipol, W-förmig gefaltete offene Schallwand

Net volume

entfällt, da offene Bauform

Outer dimension height

1200 mm

Outer dimension width

276 mm

Outer dimension depth

350 mm

Although the GRAND ORGUE cabinet consists of many individual parts, it is, in fact, easy to build because all the parts have only 90° angles and there are no bevels required. The cabinet consists of two halves which are held together by 16 threaded rods after the drivers have been fitted. The split construction is necessary because it would not be possible to fit the woofers inside a closed cabinet. To ensure the two halves are properly positioned relative to each other, we recommend wooden plugs or a similar locating system.

Initially, the construction of the two halves is identical. Glue the outer spacers and rear wall to the outer wall which has the cutout in it for the magnets. To this, glue the inner wall with the large cutouts for the woofer baskets. This completes part 2 of the cabinet. On part 1, we now glue the baffle and the rear wall for the full-range drivers in place and attach the inner spacers, which completes this part. If you intend to fit the full-range drivers from the back, as originally planned, we recommend you use screw-in nuts. These have to be screwed in before the baffle is glued in place because, afterwards, it is hardly possible to access them. Fitting the drivers from behind is mainly for appearance's sake. If you do not feel up to milling the oval cutouts exactly, you can also fit the drivers from the outside. In this case, however, we would recommend you fit a grille frame with acoustic fabric because the SL 713's basket is not particularly attractive.

It is also necessary to drill holes in the outer spacers, preferably before gluing together, to pass the wires through. The four woofers in each half of the cabinet are soldered in parallel, and these two groups then connected in series. This involves laying connecting wires between the enclosures and a connection from one of the halves to the other. For the full-range drivers, it is only necessary to drill a hole in the rear wall of the full-range enclosure.

Since there is no room inside the cabinet for the crossover, it has to be placed outside. There are no limits to your imagination. You could make a wooden base for the speaker and hide it there or just use a wooden board and mount it on that so that it is visible. There is also hardly room for terminal connections, so you will need to improvise here, too. The gold-plated screw terminals on the BT 95/75 (or from the HIGH-END-TERMINAL) can be unscrewed and fitted in the rear wall, which is an attractive solution in connection with the wood panelling. Alternatively, the wires can be fed straight from the driver to the crossover without an intermediate terminal.

To reduce the wiring to a minimum, the series capacitors (Elko Special 100 µF and MKT 47 µF), which are responsible for splitting the BB array (see above), can be housed in the full-range enclosure. They can be soldered onto the appropriate driver direct with short pieces of wire and placed in the bottom of the enclosure. Experience has shown that it makes sense to solder up all the eight full-range drivers including the series crossover while they are outside the cabinet and then to position the drivers and wiring in the cabinet afterwards. Soldering the wires on with the drivers already fitted would be far more complicated than outside the cabinet side by side on the table.

HINT: After the whole construction has been glued together, tie the two halves firmly using the threaded rods but before you fit the drivers. At this stage it is possible to sand off any irregularities using an orbital sander so that the two halves match perfectly.

Inner damping

Fold two mats of damping material longways for each of the full-range parts of the cabinet and push them inside. No damping is required in the woofer enclosures.

Component parts list for 1 box

The kit includes all the components listed here but not the cabinet.
A complete kit for this suggestion is available via www.vc-mailorderservice.de.